[00:00.10]From VOA Learning English,
[00:02.53] this is the Agriculture Report.
[00:05.03]New studies have found that a chemical commonly
[00:08.36]used to fight plant disease is harming honeybees.
[00:13.48]Experts say the chemical may be partly
[00:16.52]to blame for the widespread loss of honeybees
[00:20.62]in the United States.
[00:22.95]The insects are important to farmers.
[00:25.93]When a honeybee lands on a flower in plant,
[00:29.88]pollen sticks to its legs.
[00:32.26]When the bee lands on another flower,
[00:35.65]some of the pollen falls off
[00:37.89]and fertilizes the second plant.
[00:41.47]The act of pollination is responsible
[00:45.00]for many fruits, vegetables, nuts and other crops.
[00:51.03]Yet about 30 percent of honeybees in the United States
[00:55.95]and other areas have died in recent years.
[01:00.63]Dennis VanEngelsdorp is a researcher
[01:03.82]at the University of Maryland.
[01:06.35]He wants to learn why so many bees are dying.
[01:10.78]"The number of colonies that die every winter
[01:13.62]has been one in three.
[01:14.86]So on average 30 percent of the colonies
[01:17.85]have died every winter over the last six winters.
[01:20.94]And that's an astronomical number."
[01:23.07]His research team examined the pollen grain
[01:26.97]that honeybees carried to their homes.
[01:30.60]They found that the pollen contained high levels of
[01:34.73]35 different pesticides, chemicals use to protect plants.
[01:41.20]They also found that bees eating some fungicides of
[01:45.98]biological organisms became infected
[01:50.51]with a deadly micro-organism called Nosema.
[01:54.34]Yet fungicides are necessary to use
[01:57.52]for agricultural purposes in the United States.
[02:01.16]Mike Leggett studies pesticide for the pest management
[02:05.88]industry group -- CropLife America.
[02:09.17]"Fungicides are used, and have been used,
[02:11.66]pretty broadly, for centuries,
[02:15.02]for protection of plants from plant disease."
[02:19.00]He says that many of the pesticide
[02:21.79]found in the pollen examined by Dennis VanEngelsdorp
[02:26.12]actually protect bees from Nosema.
[02:29.45]Maryland farmer and beekeeper Keith Ohlinger
[02:33.53]has watched many of his bees die every winter.
[02:37.71]Mr Ohlinger thinks widespread bee death
[02:41.60]is result of several things happening at once.
[02:45.58]But he does not feel sure
[02:47.67]that pesticides are a part of the problem.
[02:50.60]"What I felt it was, was a compilation of a lot of little things.
[02:54.68]I didn't feel that there was probably one smoking gun.
[02:57.33]But there's a division there,
[02:59.57]some people feel that it is just one thing.
[03:01.66]Maybe I'm just not educated enough,
[03:03.50]I don't know, but my view is,
[03:05.04]if you can take a bath in it, it's probably safe.
[03:07.38]And I don't know many of the things
[03:11.36]that they're putting out right now
[03:12.87]that anybody would come out of a bath in
[03:16.06]for any length of time and go,
[03:17.81]'wow, that was great, I feel much better!'"
[03:19.76]Honeybees are important to agriculture.
[03:23.14]This makes the search for an answer to their death
[03:26.92]especially urgent for Mr VanEngelsdorp's team.
[03:31.05]As he knows, one in every three bites of food we eat
[03:37.12]is somehow pollinated by honeybees.
[03:41.35]And that's the Agriculture Report from VOA Learning English.